Dropbox is awesome. Sometimes I don’t know how I lived before I had Dropbox, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. But as much as we take Dropbox for granted, many people still don’t use it, or don’t even know about it (yes, it’s true!).

Many times I find myself in a predicament, when I know the easiest way to get a file is to use Dropbox, but explaining about Dropbox will just take too long. Or maybe I need to get something into my Dropbox and I just don’t have access to it right now. For these scenarios, some nice people invented services we can use to send files directly to our Dropbox, without using Dropbox.

Note that all these services require your Dropbox credentials in order to work, and you must authorize them within Dropbox.

FileStork

FileStork is a web-based service which you can use to create file requests to be sent to your Dropbox. If you need several people to send you one (or more) files, or you want to give someone permanent permission to send files to your Dropbox, FileStork can provide an easy and slick solution for you.

With FileStork you can either create a one-time request, which expires after the files are sent, or a request that will never expire until you delete it. Creating a request is really simple. It is flexible enough without being complicated, and you can decide what types of files are allowed and also set a password. If you decide to allow only documents, for example, the FileStork uploader won’t allow the sender to upload any other type of file.

The sender will receive an e-mail with your request and will be directed to the uploader. Uploading files is also very easy, so even people who are not very computer-literate should have no trouble using it.

Send To Dropbox provides a quick and easy way to e-mail files directly to your Dropbox. You can use it yourself or give this e-mail address to others.

You get an automatic address when you sign up, but you can control it somewhat if you wish (you can’t decide exactly what it will be).

There aren’t a lot of options, but you can control the path the files will be saved to, have it automatically extract zip files and even get a plain text or html copy of the e-mail message itself right in your Dropbox. Perfect if your friends and colleagues use e-mail but are still clueless about Dropbox.

If creating requests is too much work and e-mailing feels too cumbersome, use DROPitTOme to create a personalized URL in which you or other people can upload files directly to your Dropbox.

If this sounds precarious to you, don’t worry – you get to set a password to this URL, and only people who know it may access the uploading section.

Note that besides your Dropbox credentials, you will have to create a separate DROPitTOme account, which I could do without. But this is the only “messy” part of this service.

The files are uploaded to My Dropbox/DROPitTOme and that’s it. You can’t create folders or organize it in any way. It’s pretty bare bones in that way, but having said that, it’s quite convenient to have your own short URL that you can give anyone you wish and they can use it to upload files directly to your Dropbox – not frills, no mess.

All you have to do is enter the URL and click Save (after allowing access to your Dropbox first, of course). The download is very quick, and you save a lot of time by not having to first download it to wherever you are at the moment. URL Droplet also keeps track of the files you’ve already downloaded and ones that are still in queue. It is also supposed to show the progress bar of the actual download, but this did not work for me for some reason.

The files are saved to your main My Dropbox folder, and this cannot be changed. You also have no control over the name of the file you download, which is why I ended up with a audio file called “track”. Overall, though, it’s a quick and time-saving solution in the right scenario.

At first glance, sideCLOUDload doesn’t look so impressive. I was glad I checked it out anyway, as it turns out to be a very cool service. With sideCLOUDload you can send files directly to your Dropbox (or your e-mail if you wish) either by uploading them from your computer or downloading them directly from a URL.

You can control the downloaded file’s name, which is a big plus, and you can create a custom folder for it to download to.

Another great feature is the sideCLOUDload bookmarklet. You can create multiple settings and get a bookmarklet for each. When you use the bookmarklet, a window opens in which you can simply paste a URL and sideCLOUDload will automatically open. You can even set it so the URL is submitted automatically when using the bookmarklet. Pretty useful!

Conclusion

I’m very happy with all these solutions. Whatever your needs are, I’m sure at least one of these services will cater to them. I’m glad to see such ample choice and so many services that work so well.

Do you use some other ways to send files to your Dropbox? Share them in the comments!

I would like to create an account for a professional teacher organization where everyone with the password can drop and retrieve documents. My goal would be to use a site that doesn't require a download like Dropbox. I am considering GoogleDocs, but do not want everyone to have access to the password. Can a Google File Folder be public? Any and all suggestions appreciated!

As Aibek suggested, you could ask this in the MakeUseOf Answers section and get many recommendations.

As it is, I think Dropbox is the best way to do this. It is possible to use Dropbox without downloading it, just using the web interface. It's not as convenient, but it's possible. It's also possible to do it with Google. I believe you can share a folder with a group of people and they don't need to have a password.

We manage online storage, tasks, all your email accounts, all your documents, notes, projects, bookmarks and much more in one place...and we're only in beta! I have a few invites to hand out, send me an email if you want one: haim@iqtell.com

This is completely new to me as well! I wasn't aware that there were alternatives...I quite like the idea of being able to email directly into Dropbox...dropittome seems like a real time saver as well!